Civil Servants' Stories on First Day of WFH: Just a Change in Location, Work According to Job Descriptions

One of them, Rizkha (28), a civil servant at the Central Java Provincial Liaison Office based in South Jakarta, said that during WFH, all employees continue to work according to their responsibilities. “The difference is only in the work location. We still carry out our tasks from our respective homes and must remain on standby if there is urgent work. The division of work remains based on each person’s job description, adjusted to the WFH schedule,” Rizkha stated when contacted on Friday (10/4/2026). In line with Rizkha, Aprilia (27), a civil servant in the Ministry of Population and Family Development (Kemendukbangga) / National Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN), said there is no significant difference in workload during WFH. According to her, all work responsibilities must still be completed. “By chance, my work at the office is somewhat administrative, so whether at the office or at home, it’s the same things that need to be done,” said Aprilia. Aprilia explained that even when working from home, employees are still required to follow normal working hours, from 07:30 WIB to 16:00 WIB. Even leaders continue to monitor employees through virtual meetings. “There is a point that explains if PTP (eschelon 1), bureau heads or directors must supervise or monitor their employees. One way is through Zoom Meetings or Google Meet for morning coordination meetings. So even though we are WFH, we are still monitored on what we are doing,” she clarified. Furthermore, Aprilia recounted the attendance system during WFH. She explained that employees must take attendance through the Human Resource Management Information System (SIM SDM) application, which is equipped with a geotagging feature. “In my attendance system, when clocking in, there are menu options: WFH, WFO, external meetings, or field duties. For WFH, we have to select the WFH menu, and the geotag is set to a radius of only 50 metres from the home location,” she revealed. Not only regarding location, civil servants are also required to upload real-time photos when taking attendance. This is done to ensure that employees are truly ready to work in front of their respective devices. “So before attending, right at the start, we have to update our home location through the application. So attendance is still geotagged and uses real-time photos,” she added.